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One Power
The One Power emanates from the True Source, which is made up of two complementary parts: saidin, the male half, and saidar, the female half. People who can wield it are called channelers. Nature of the True Source It can be seen as a source, quite literally, of energy, capable of manipulating the universe, which prolongs the lives of its users by a factor of ten or even more, depending on individual strength. It is also called the True Source. It is never used up by someone channelling it, only woven into a purpose temporarily. Each half of the One Power can be used only by people of the associated sex. The two halves are direct opposites, yet both complement each other, by turning the Wheel of Time through both cooperation and opposition. The essential differences in the nature of the two halves of the Power mean that a woman cannot teach a man to channel, and vice-versa. Channelers Not everyone has the ability to "channel", or access, the One Power. Most have none at all, and some only have the ability to be taught, to one degree or another. But a few channelers are born with "the spark" -- an innate inclination that will lead them to touch the Source, whether they wish to or not. These wilders often die without ever gaining control over their innate ability; some research indicates the mortality rate for untrained channelers is 75% or more. Often, this survival comes with a price; they may not even know they are using the One Power to do things, they just know that sometimes, "things happen" when they want them badly enough. Wilders are also frequently saddled with a block -- an instinctive self-preservation instinct that causes them trouble when they do try to channel purposefully. This can take the form of only being able to channel while angry, or never with one's eyes closed. Those who do not have the spark can go their entire lives without touching the Power or even realizing they can. The first time someone channels without training, they will suffer side effects, of which there are many: fever and chills, taking uncharacteristic risks, etc. These side effects will come closer and closer to the incident of touching the Power until they coincide. At this moment, without the proper training, the channeler will soon die "as though an invisible clock had begun ticking." Channelers are not born equal--some are stronger in the Power, can handle more of it, than others. Men and women are different in this and many other regards when it comes to the One Power. Channelers must always be careful, as the One Power is dangerous. Besides providing an addictive stimulating quality, channelers who draw too much of the Power into themselves can kill themselves or render themselves brain-dead. If they are lucky--relatively speaking--they will only burn the ability out of themselves, leaving themselves unable to channel ever again. Channelers can also be permanently denied the Source by another party. In modern Aes Sedai parlance, this is called "stilling" when done to women, "gentling" when done to men, but archaically it was called "severing" for either gender. Regardless of the circumstances, those who lose the ability permanently also tend to lose the will to live. Very recently, an Aes Sedai named Nynaeve al'Meara, and some Asha'man, have discovered how to heal severing, but the process is flawed and still in development. It has been implied that only women can heal men to full strength, while only men can heal women to full strength. All men and women with the spark come to a point of crisis in which they are in severe danger of dying without training, as the One Power is dangerous to the untrained. Many women who die of mysterious circumstances in their late teenaged years are actually wilders who have failed to cope with their abilities. The women who survive invariably develop mental blocks that prevent channeling in the absence of certain conditions; two known blocks required severe anger or thoughts about men before their sufferers could allow themselves to channel. Serious and sometimes drastic counseling is often required to overcome blocking. creating an illusion.]] Male and female differences When using the One Power one weaves flows of different elements: Earth, Spirit, Water, Air, and Fire, also known as the Five Powers. Men are generally stronger with Fire and Earth, while women are generally stronger with Air and Water; significant strength in Spirit is distributed equally, and relatively rare in either. Great strength in all Five Powers has been unknown since the Age of Legends. Even then it was extremely rare. Male channelers as a whole are much stronger than individual female channelers in much the same way men are generally stronger than women, but men cannot link to form a "circle" of multiple channelers working together without a woman's aid. Similarly, women are more dexterous in the actual weaving of the flows, and have the advantage of linking, but cannot increase a circle beyond thirteen without the inclusion of men. ''Saidar Female channelers can tell when other women are touching the Source - a white glowing aura appears around their body, only visible to those trained to touch ''saidar. The ability can also be sensed in any woman capable of channeling, whether they are wilders or Aes Sedai. In the testing to see if one can channel, a woman channels a simple weave and waits. Within five minutes if a woman has the spark, the woman tries to channel the flow, and the test is confirmed. It takes longer for those who only can learn. However, a woman who has the spark can be detected by another female channeler without being tested. A man who can channel saidin can detect the nearby channeling of saidar as it raises goosebumps on his flesh. Saidar is described as gentle, but infinitely powerful; a force which will do what you wish it to, but requires patience and submission to guide its power. Surrender is necessary to gain it, and women universally speak of it as 'embracing' the Power. ''Saidin A man can sense when another man is holding ''saidin, though not in the way women do: a man would describe it as a feeling of awe and menace -- with nothing truly visible -- and not easily pinpointed to a particular location or person. The farther the channeling, the fainter the feel. While a female channeler can sense any woman channeling, sensing for men depends largely on the amount of saidin used in the weave. There is almost no way for a woman to tell when a man is channeling, though the residues of his channeling can be detected using an appropriate weave. Recently an active method was discovered to discern whether or not a man was channeling or holding saidin, but this is not widely known. No man can tell at sight if another man can channel, unless the other man has seized saidin. Testing for men involves channeling a simple flow until a "resonance" is felt from the one being tested. This may often take as long as fifteen to twenty minutes for those with the spark, and much longer for those who can only learn. Saidin is described as a rough torrent requiring strict control, something you have to "seize" to gain, and fight to weave. Organizations Aes Sedai are the largest group of women who wield the One Power this side of the Dragonwall. Their headquarters, the White Tower, is on the island city of Tar Valon near Dragonmount. There are other groups in Randland, but they have either kept themselves totally secret or have been neutralized by the Tower. (Some Aes Sedai refer to any female channeler who is not affiliated with the Tower as a "wilder", although this is not strictly correct.) These other groups include the Aiel Wise Ones, the largest known group of channelers anywhere, who have kept secret by being on the other side of the Spine of the World. Five hundred female channelers, with a few dozen apprentices, were joined to one clan, half the numbers of the White Tower, and it was not considered abnormal. They maintain their numbers by testing every girl who can channel, and making them Wise Ones, though channeling is not a requirement to become a Wise One. The damane and sul'dam of the Seanchan can be considered another group of channelers, though not independent as they are joined to the greater Seanchan Empire. Every girl with the spark is leashed with the a'dam, and trained to be damane, and most who can learn are chosen to be sul'dam (although most Seanchan do not know that this is why they can be chosen for the task). The sul'dam and the damane have a relationship much like that of a master and his dog. Not coincidentally, the number who can channel on the Seanchan side of the ocean is much higher than on this side, as the sul'dam remain in the breeding pool. The Windfinders of the Sea Folk are yet another group of channelers unknown to the Tower, until very recently. Their members are of great average strength and quite independent of the Tower, though they send a few of their weakest to be Aes Sedai to allay suspicion. This was considered a great sacrifice by the Sea Folk, because it requires those girls to be largely separated from both their people and the oceans. The Kin were known to the Aes Sedai, but their numbers were grossly underestimated. Considered by the Tower to be a grouping of only a few dozen failed novices and Accepted, with some wilder recruits, they indeed numbered over two thousand, far outnumbering the Aes Sedai they emulated. A disturbing fact (to Aes Sedai) is that the Kin seem to live much longer than the average Aes Sedai, perhaps due to the removal of the Oath Rod's influence. The Ayyad of Shara are another group of Channelers. Like the nation they hail from, very little is known about the Ayyad. They tattoo their faces, and channel at the command of the Sh'boan. Male Ayyad are used as breeding stock, and are killed either when they start to channel or turn twenty-one. The taint on saidin In the current age, the Dark One's taint on saidin causes male channelers, even those who survive the struggle to learn to channel safely, to inevitably go mad and succumb to a wasting sickness which causes the sufferer to rot alive (these curses may come in either order, or concurrently, at varying speeds for each male channeler). The taint came into being at the end of the Age of Legends, when Lews Therin Telamon and the Hundred Companions (actually 113 male channelers) re-sealed the Dark One into his prison, but in the process, the Dark One unleashed a counterstroke, which caused saidin to become tainted, the taint driving the Hundred Companions and the Dragon immediately and irrevocably insane. Other male Aes Sedai took longer for the taint to affect them, but by the time they understood what had happened, it was too late. Within ten years, enough men had gone mad. The ensuing chaos and destruction caused the Breaking of the World or the Time of Madness, which would only end once the last male Aes Sedai had died. A significant percentage of modern Aes Sedai, most of them Red Ajah, dedicate their lives to hunting down and gentling male channelers before they can cause trouble. Possibly as a result of this, or the White Tower policy of discouraging marriage and childbearing, fewer and fewer people of either gender are born with the talent. Cleansing of saidin Saidin has purportedly been cleansed through the use of two of the most powerful sa'angreal ever made, called the Choedan Kal. They were used by Nynaeve al'Meara and Rand al'Thor in a linked circle. The process involved the relationship between the Taint of Shadar Logoth and the Taint on saidin. Rand using saidar, granted to him by linking with Nynaeve, wove a conduit of saidar above Shadar Logoth and then channeled a massive amount of saidin into it. As the opposing halves of the source repel, saidin was repulsed away from the walls of the conduit, while the taint on saidin continued on to Shadar Logoth. The taint of Shadar Logoth, born of hatred as deep as, if not deeper than, the Shadow, reacted to the Dark One's taint resulting in the annihilation of both evils. The long and complex process destroyed the ruined city of Shadar Logoth and was felt by most, if not all, channelers of both genders in the Westlands. However, some have confessed doubt over the effectiveness of the cleansing. It has not been shown conclusively to all that the cleansing was successful. Regardless, any already induced madness or sickness caused by the taint would not been healed by this cleansing, but merely prevented from worsening. At least a few Aes Sedai who work in close contact with Asha'man have come to believe, through linking, that saidin is truly clean, although it is still utterly alien to them. Category:Concepts One Power